Guest ArtistsAdam Lau, bass

American bass Adam Lau has been praised as a “bass of real quality, with sonorous low notes” (Palm Beach Arts Paper). Upcoming engagements include Mr. Lau singing the bass soloist in Verdi's Requiem with Guelph Symphony Orchestra, a return to Seattle Opera as The Speaker in Die Zauberflöte , and the bass soloist in Mahler's Eighth Symphony with Maestro Kent Tritle and the Berkshire Music Festival.

Highlights of Mr. Lau’s 2016-17 season included his first Wagnerian role, that of Donner in Das Rheingold, in his return to North Carolina Opera. He made his debut with Lyric Opera of Kansas City, singing the title role in Le nozze di Figaro, followed by his Carnegie Hall debut, singing Handel's Messiah with The Oratorio Society of NY. In the spring of 2017, Mr. Lau returned to Carnegie Hall to sing Pilate in St. John Passion with Master Voices. He also made his international debut singing Méphistophélès in The Damnation of Faust with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, conducted by John Nelson.

In the 2015-16 season Mr. Lau made his debut with the San Francisco Symphony as the bass soloist in Handel's Messiah. He later returned to San Francisco Symphony singing the bass soloist in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. He also sang Mahler's Eighth Symphony with Maestro Kent Tritle, at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York. These concerts were later commercially recorded. On the opera stage Mr. Lau returned to North Carolina Opera as Don Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia, made his role debut as Lodovico in Minnesota Orchestra's semi-staged production of Otello and also participated in Dallas Opera's World Premiere of Mark Adamo's Becoming Santa Claus.

Mr. Lau has appeared with some of the nation’s leading summer festivals including Merola Opera Center (Basilio, Il barbiere di Siviglia), Aspen Opera Theater Center (Leporello, Don Giovanni; Speaker, Die Zauberflöte; George Wilson, The Great Gatsby) and Santa Fe Opera (Antonio, Le nozze di Figaro; Commissario, La traviata).

Mr. Lau won First Prize in the 2016 Jensen Vocal Competition, and Top Prize in the 2015 George London Foundation competition. He was also a finalist in the 2016 Dallas Opera Competition. In 2013 he won First Place in the Young Patronesses of Opera Competition, was awarded the Santa Fe Opera Agnes M. Canning Memorial Award for Singers, received a Sullivan Career Development Award from the Sullivan Foundation, and won First Place in the Palm Springs Opera Guild Competition. Mr. Lau has been a Regional Finalist in the Northwest Region Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and a Second Place Winner of the West Coast Regional MONCA.

Adam Lau received his master of music degree at Rice University, and an undergraduate degree in Music Vocal Performance and Biology minor from Whitman College.